Atom-Tech & Processes

12 laboratories

Clean rooms are the mandatory working environment in all industrial sectors and research laboratories that require strict control in terms of cleanliness and control of the working environment. This is particularly the case in the field of microelectronics, nanotechnologies and nanosciences. Today, the lateral dimension of commonly produced components is sub-micrometric (100 nm), and can reach the nanometric/molecular scale for the best platforms and laboratories. In order to achieve these accuracies on a regular basis and to guarantee the quality and reproducibility of the processes, it is essential to be free from any source of uncontrolled contamination (dust) and to work at constant temperature and hygrometry.

The construction and operation of a clean room represents a very heavy investment. The cost of installing the empty clean room alone can be more than €10,000/m2, to which must be added all the equipment. This is why these investments are often pooled, for example, by a consortium of companies that wish to develop a common technology. In terms of training and research, France is particularly well equipped with several networks of specific and complementary platforms, capable of meeting the various needs expressed for the implementation of applied or very basic research and development projects. Renatech is the French academic network of state-of-the-art equipment in the field of micro and nanotechnology led by the CNRS, open to the entire academic community and to industry. Second circle technology centres or proximity centres with very specific technological fields complete the Renatech network and allow the development/creation of new technological fields.

Within this coherent network, CEMES-CNRS has a unique infrastructure in the Picolab building with equipment adapted to classic nano-fabrication processes and a totally original ultra-high vacuum process including atom-by-atom fabrication processes.

Nano-fabrication Processes Department

The CEMES clean room is open to the scientific community: for academic researchers within or outside CEMES but also for private companies. The service aims to provide expertise, tools and instruments dedicated to micro- and nanofabrication for fundamental and applied research, education and training.

The department manages the entire 450m2 clean room, which is segmented into several dedicated rooms, classified as ISO Class 4 to 7. The ISO Class 4 room is dedicated to current lithography processes and the development of advanced atomic technologies.

  Experimental techniques:

• Nanofabrication: The cleanroom offers the main tools to design and elaborate nanodevices for electronics, metamaterials, spintronics, optics. This includes equipment for photolithography (laser, mask aligner), electron beam lithography, wet etching, ion beam and reactive ion etching, focused ion beam, physical vapour deposition (electron beam evaporation, sputtering), focused ion beam induced deposition, and characterisation techniques such as optical microscopy, mechanical profiling, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, electrical characterisation…
• Atom Tech: these technologies are carried out under ultra-high vacuum (UHV), and aim to produce nano devices with atomic precision for studies at the scale of the molecule or the single atom. UHV-based nano-tools, such as nano stencils through suspended diaphragms or drilled AFM tips, and nano printing, are manufactured within the department by the nanofabrication tool panel. Surface preparation for the development of nanodevices is carried out by UHV metal and insulator deposition machines. The interconnections of the UHV chambers allow to obtain the picometric precision necessary to study atomic circuits, and mechanical molecule-machines.

    Human skills:

• Development of custom nano-fabrication processes for thin film nanodevices, nanostructured materials, nano-objects (optics, magnetism, radio frequency, transport properties, in situ transmission electron microscopy studies under electrical or magnetic excitation, …).
• Development of original processes in a full vacuum compatible nano-fabrication line for nanosciences (ultra-small epitaxial nanostructure, molecular electronics, atomic circuits, mechanical molecule-machine, etc.).

Optical and electron beam lithography

Two sputtering machines, annealing furnaces

CP-UHV Service: Ultimate ultra-high vacuum microscopy (Jimmy FARIA)

(Jimmy FARIA)

The “Ultimate Microscopies” branch of the CP-UHV department of CEMES is equipped with 3 experimental equipments operating under ultra-high vacuum (UHV), installed in the low noise clean rooms of the PicoLab building :

1. LT-STM/Qplus (Low Temperature STM): the low temperature STM

Low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) that can work at a temperature of 5K in STM mode and/or in non-contact AFM mode (NC-AFM). Equipped to prepare crystalline surfaces under UHV and to deposit thin insulating layers, it allows the deposition of metals or molecules at low temperature.

2. The DUF (DiNaMo UHV Factory): the factory under UHV

Designed and developed at CEMES, this equipment offers a complete device for measuring the electronic properties of a single molecule in planar configuration on an insulating surface. It is composed of 5 UHV chambers connected by a transfer tube under UHV: i) molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) frame, ii) preparation chamber for tips and molecule deposition, iii) low energy and controlled ion source, iv) high sensitivity NC-AFM/KPFM microscope and v) STM+NC-AFM/KPFM microscope equipped with the nanostencil technique.

3. The LT-UHV 4-STM/Qplus + SEM: the “4 spikes”

Low temperature microscope (4K) with 4 independent STM heads and a FEG-SEM column. One of the STM heads is also equipped with the Qplus module for NC-AFM measurements at 5 K. The unit is connected to a preparation chamber under UHV (possibility of multiple sublimations of molecules) and to another chamber equipped with a UHV transfer printer.

About ten permanent and non-permanent CEMES researchers are developing their research on this equipment.

This microscope was the arena in which the 1st edition of the NanoCar Race, a race of molecules on a 100 nm track, took place in April 2017. The 2nd edition of this scientific competition took place in March 2022.

CP-UHV Department: Local probe microscopies (Grégory SEINE)

(Grégory SEINE)

The “Local Probe Microscopy” branch of the CP-UVH service brings together a set of near-field surface imaging techniques in air. It is divided into a service activity and a research activity.
1) The service activity is based on two Bruker commercial microscopes, one of which is integrated in a clean room and is equipped with a nano-positioning table. The service offers access to measurements of:
– Topography (AFM contact or tapping mode, STM) in air or liquid
– Imaging of lateral friction forces (LFM)
– Magnetic Force Imaging (MFM)
– Electrical Force Imaging (EFM)
– Surface Potential Imaging (KFM)
– Piezoelectric Force Imaging (PFM)
– Force curves
Near-field microscopy, or local probe microscopy, allows 3-dimensional observations, on scales from 1 nm to 100 µm, on all types of samples: surfaces (metallic, semiconducting or insulating), nano-objects (nanoparticles, nano-structures), molecules, biological samples…
The department is also equipped with a Bruker Dektak 150 contact profilometer. Located in a clean room as close as possible to the nanofabrication processes, this device is ideal for rapidly measuring the profile of a surface in order to determine its roughness or geometry on a micro or nanometric scale.
Methods of carrying out the measurements:
– Services by the person in charge, with or without the presence of the applicant
– Training of the applicant in order to be autonomous on the microscope (to be considered for large measurement campaigns)
Physical constraints on the samples for the microscope outside the clean room:
– The geometrical configuration of the equipment requires calibration of the sample format: the useful area to be observed must be located in the centre of the sample, in an area of approximately 5×5 mm², with the total dimensions of the sample not exceeding 1 cm (W) x 1 cm (L) x 0.8 cm (D)
– The sample may be very small or of any shape
How to access:
– Contact the person in charge of the activity (contact details below)
– For applicants already trained, bookings on GRR via the CEMES intranet site
Conditions of access:
– The service is open in priority to members of the laboratory
– The service is also open to external parties, institutions or companies
Pricing: at full cost, unit of work (UO): half a day
– Academic clients: 30.35€ to 99.53€ per UO, depending on the source of funding
– Other clients: 727.77€ per UO
For more information, please contact Grégory Seine, 05 62 25 79 64

2) The research activity also relies on a commercial Bruker microscope, but transformed to operate in the near-field optical mode “PSTM” (Photon Scanning Tunneling Microscope) and in the STM stimulated photon emission mode “LE-STM”. Although research-oriented, this microscope can be used with all the usual AFM modes. It allows to associate the 3D topography of AFM or STM with a mapping of the photonic emission in near field obtained by optical excitation of the sample (photoluminescence type) or electronic (cathodoluminescence type).
The microscope has a laser line (violet to near infrared range 457 nm – 1000 nm) allowing the samples to be excited in total reflection through a prism. Photon collection is via a thinned optical fibre (in PSTM mode) or not (in LE-STM mode). The collected light can be routed to a photomultiplier (photon counting) or a spectrometer (spectral analysis).

Responsable : Renaud Péchou, 05 62 25 78 95

One ion implanter with low energy module.

Ion Implantation

(Grégory SEINE (Resp.), Frédéric NEUMAYER)

Ion implantation involves introducing ions into a material to modify its properties. For example, in microelectronics, the ion implanter is used to boost semiconductor materials.

At CEMES, ion implantation is one of the physical ways of synthesising nanoparticles.

The CEMES ion implanter is a VARIAN 200-2A (200 keV) model, with a specific feature: an “Ultra Low Energy” (ULE) module allowing implantation at energies from 0.6 keV. It was renovated in early 2016.

Grégory SEINE (Resp.), Frédéric NEUMAYER

Thanks to the ULE module, this equipment makes it possible to manufacture nanocrystals (after annealing in one of the furnaces of the Growth Link Department) by controlling:

• their size
• the density (thin layers)
• their position in the substrate (a few nanometres deep).

The ion species that can be implanted are the following: Si, Ag, Au, N, Ar, H and He. In connection with the activities of the laboratory, the implantations carried out at CEMES concern applications in plasmonics and photovoltaics, microelectronics (transistors) or the implementation of the Smart Cut™ process.